PROJECT MANAGEMENT: ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES Guy Merlin Nuefelie (3rd course EuroMPM)
INTRODUCTION
Depending on their size and importance, projects are organize in different ways . if we are talking of a small project Example 1 – Small Project Roles & Responsibilities, a little organization structure is needed .For such a project, a primary sponsor, a project manager , and a project team are enough to go on with the project . But concerning a large project Example 2 – Large-sized Project Roles & Responsibilities , more and more people are needed for the project realization it's therefore very important that all the people involved clearly understand how they have to contribute to the project realization . So i've identified below some of the common(and not so common) project roles that might be needed in a project.
Analyst.
He insures that the requirements of the business clients are captured and documented correctly before a solution is developed and implemented. In some companies, the analyst might be called a Business Analyst, Business Systems Analyst, Systems Analyst or a Requirements Analyst.
Change Control Board
. It's usually made up as a group of decision makers authorized to accept changes to the projects requirements, timelines, and budget. The cahange control board would be very helpful if the project directly impacted a number of functional areas and if the sponsor wanted to share the scope change authority with this broader group. The details concerning the Change Control Board and the processes they follow are defined in the project management processes.
Client.
The client is or are( in the case that client is a group of people) the direct beneficiaries of a project or service. They are the people for whom the project is being created. (Indirect beneficiaries are probably stakeholders.) These might also be called "customers", but in the case that they belongl to the company LifecycleStep refers to them generically as clients. If they are outside your company, they would be considered as "customers".
Client Project Manager.
If the project is large enough, the client may have a primary contact that is considered as a comparable project manager. As an example, if this were an IT project, the IT project manager would have the whole responsibility for the IT solution. But, there may also be projects on the client side that are also needed to support the initiative, and the client project manager would be responsible for those. The IT project manager and the client project manager would be a couple that work together to realize the complete solution.
Designer.
He has the responsibility of understanding the business requirements and designing a solution that will meet the business needs. There can many potential solutions that will meet the client's needs. The designer should therefore determines the best approach. A designer typically needs to figure out and understand how technology can be used to create the optimum solution for the client. The designer determines the global model and framework for the solution, down to the level of reports,programs and other components, designing screen. They also determine the data needs. The work of the designer is then handed off to the programmers and other people who will construct the solution based on the design specifications.
Project Manager.
He/she has the responsibility and the authority to manage a project. This includes working, in conjunction with the project sponsor,in order to figure out a clear definition of the project. The project manager then makes sure that the project is delivered on time, according to budget and according to the required quality standard (within agreed specifications). he/she makes sure that the project is effectively resourced and manages relationships with a wide range of groups (including all project contributors ) . The PM must also manage the work of consultants, allocating and utilizing resources in a efficient manner and maintaining a co-operative motivated and successful team. The Project manager responsibilities: • managing and leading the project team • recruiting project staff and consultants • managing co-ordination of partners and working groups engaged in project work • detailed project planning and control • managing project deliverables in line with the project plan •resolving cross-functional issues at project level • managing project scope and change control and escalating issues where necessary • monitoring project process and performance • providing status reports to the project sponsor •managing project training within the define budget • final approval of the design specification • working closely with users to ensure the project meets business needs
Project Team.
The project team consists of the full-time and part-time resources commited to work on the deliverables of the project. The project team is made by analysts, designers, programmers, etc. Their responsibilities are:
Understanding the work to be completed
Planning out the assigned activities in more detail if needed
making sure that the assigned work is completed within the budget, timeline and quality expectations
making sure that the project manager is informed about issues,risk and quality concerns, scope changes
seeing to the well communication of status and managing expectations
The project team can consist of human resources within one functional organization, or it can consist of members from many different functional organizations. A cross-functional team has members from multiple organizations. Having a cross-functional team is usually a sign of your organization utilizing matrix management.
Sponsor
(Executive Sponsor and Project Sponsor). This is the person who has ultimate Power and authority over the project. He (the executive sponsor)provides project funding, takes careof issues and scope changes, approves major deliverables and provides high-level direction. They also champion the project within their organization. Depending on the project, and the organizational level of the Executive Sponsor,tactical management can be delagate to a Project Sponsor. In that case, the Project Sponsor represents the Executive Sponsor on a day-to-day basis, and makes most of the decisions requiring sponsor approval. In the case that the decision is important enough, the Project Sponsor will then refer to the Executive Sponsor for resolution purpose.
Stakeholder.
Stakeholders consist of specific people or groups who detain a stake , or an interest, in the outcome of the project. Generally these people are from within the company, and could include internal clients, management, employees, administrators, etc.It's also possible to find external stakeholders in a project , including suppliers, investors, community groups and government organization.
Steering Committee.
It's is a group of high-level stakeholders who have the responsibility of providing guidance on overall strategic direction. The steering committee does not play the role of a Sponsor, however it help spreading the strategic input and buy-in to a larger portion of the organization. The Steering Committee is usually made up of organizational peers, and is a combination of direct clients and indirect stakeholders. The members on the Steering Committee may also sit on the Change Control Board, although in many cases the Change Board is made up of representatives of the Steering Committee.
Suppliers / Vendors.
Despite the fact that some companies may have internal suppliers, in the LifecycleStep Process, these terms will always be used to talk about a third party companies, or specific people that work for third parties. They may be subcontractors who are working under your direction, or they may be supplying material, equipment, hardware, software or supplies to your project. Depending on their role, they may need to be identified on your organization chart. For instance, if you are partnering with a supplier to develop your requirements, you probably want them on your organization chart. On the other hand, if they are a vendor supplying a common piece of hardware, you probably would not consider them a part of the team.
Users.
Users are the people who will use the deliverables of the project. These people are also heaveily involved in the project especially for activities such as defining business requirements. In other cases, they may not get involved until the testing process. Sometimes you want to specifically identify the user organization or the specific users of the solution and assign a formal set of responsibilities to them, like developing use cases or user scenarios based on the needs of the business requirements.
Responsibility Matrix
In a large project context, there are generally many people who play some role in the creation and approval of project deliverables. Sometimes this is pretty straightforward, such as one person writing a document and one person approving it. In other cases, it's possible to find many people who have a hand in the creation, and others that need to have varying levels of approval. The Responsibility Matrix is a technique used to define the general responsibilities for each role on a project. The matrix can then be used to communicate the roles to the appropriate people associated with the team. This helps set expectations, and ensures people know what is expected from them. On the matrix, the different people, or roles, appear as columns, with the specific deliverables in question listed as rows. Then, use the intersecting points to describe each person's responsibility for each deliverable. A simple example matrix follows:
Project Sponsor
Project Manager
Project Team
Client Managers
Analysts
Requirements Management Plan
A
C
R
A
R
Requirements Report
I, A
R
R
I, A
C
Process Model
R
R
R
I, A
C
Data Model
R
R
R
I, A
C
Requirements Traceability Matrix
R
R
R
R
C
A - Approves the deliverable
R - Reviews the deliverable (and provides feedback).
C - Creates the deliverable (could be C (1) for primary, C (2) for backup). Usually there is only one person who is responsible for creating a deliverable, although many people may provide input.
I - Provides input
N – Is notified when a deliverable is complete
M - Manages the deliverables (such as a librarian, or person responsible for the document repository)
According to the table above, the project manager is responsible of creating the Requirements Management Plan ,which is approved by the sponsor and client managers, and reviewed by the project team and analysts. The main purpose of the matrix is to ,clairly establish who is responsible of what,the colums can be define with as much detail as makes sense. For instance, if we take a look of the above example, the 'Project Team' could have been broken into specific people or the person responsible for creating the Data Model could have been broken out into a separate column. After the matrix is completed, it should be circulated for approval. If it is done in the Project Charter process, it can be an addendum to the Project Charter. If it is created as a part of the initial Analysis Phase, it should be circulated as a separate document. Examples of responsibility codes are as follows. Your project may define different codes, as long as you explain what they mean so that people know what the expectations are for them.
Table of Contents
Guy Merlin Nuefelie (3rd course EuroMPM)
INTRODUCTION
Depending on their size and importance, projects are organize in different ways . if we are talking of a small project Example 1 – Small Project Roles & Responsibilities, a little organization structure is needed .For such a project, a primary sponsor, a project manager , and a project team are enough to go on with the project . But concerning a large project Example 2 – Large-sized Project Roles & Responsibilities , more and more people are needed for the project realization it's therefore very important that all the people involved clearly understand how they have to contribute to the project realization . So i've identified below some of the common(and not so common) project roles that might be needed in a project.
Analyst.
He insures that the requirements of the business clients are captured and documented correctly before a solution is developed and implemented. In some companies, the analyst might be called a Business Analyst, Business Systems Analyst, Systems Analyst or a Requirements Analyst.Change Control Board
. It's usually made up as a group of decision makers authorized to accept changes to the projects requirements, timelines, and budget. The cahange control board would be very helpful if the project directly impacted a number of functional areas and if the sponsor wanted to share the scope change authority with this broader group. The details concerning the Change Control Board and the processes they follow are defined in the project management processes.Client.
The client is or are( in the case that client is a group of people) the direct beneficiaries of a project or service. They are the people for whom the project is being created. (Indirect beneficiaries are probably stakeholders.) These might also be called "customers", but in the case that they belongl to the company LifecycleStep refers to them generically as clients. If they are outside your company, they would be considered as "customers".Client Project Manager.
If the project is large enough, the client may have a primary contact that is considered as a comparable project manager. As an example, if this were an IT project, the IT project manager would have the whole responsibility for the IT solution. But, there may also be projects on the client side that are also needed to support the initiative, and the client project manager would be responsible for those. The IT project manager and the client project manager would be a couple that work together to realize the complete solution.Designer.
He has the responsibility of understanding the business requirements and designing a solution that will meet the business needs. There can many potential solutions that will meet the client's needs. The designer should therefore determines the best approach. A designer typically needs to figure out and understand how technology can be used to create the optimum solution for the client. The designer determines the global model and framework for the solution, down to the level of reports,programs and other components, designing screen. They also determine the data needs. The work of the designer is then handed off to the programmers and other people who will construct the solution based on the design specifications.Project Manager.
He/she has the responsibility and the authority to manage a project. This includes working, in conjunction with the project sponsor,in order to figure out a clear definition of the project. The project manager then makes sure that the project is delivered on time, according to budget and according to the required quality standard (within agreed specifications). he/she makes sure that the project is effectively resourced and manages relationships with a wide range of groups (including all project contributors ) .The PM must also manage the work of consultants, allocating and utilizing resources in a efficient manner and maintaining a co-operative motivated and successful team.
The Project manager responsibilities:
• managing and leading the project team
• recruiting project staff and consultants
• managing co-ordination of partners and working groups engaged in project work
• detailed project planning and control
• managing project deliverables in line with the project plan
•resolving cross-functional issues at project level
• managing project scope and change control and escalating issues where necessary
• monitoring project process and performance
• providing status reports to the project sponsor
•managing project training within the define budget
• final approval of the design specification
• working closely with users to ensure the project meets business needs
Project Team.
The project team consists of the full-time and part-time resources commited to work on the deliverables of the project. The project team is made by analysts, designers, programmers, etc. Their responsibilities are:- Understanding the work to be completed
- Planning out the assigned activities in more detail if needed
- making sure that the assigned work is completed within the budget, timeline and quality expectations
- making sure that the project manager is informed about issues,risk and quality concerns, scope changes
- seeing to the well communication of status and managing expectations
The project team can consist of human resources within one functional organization, or it can consist of members from many different functional organizations. A cross-functional team has members from multiple organizations. Having a cross-functional team is usually a sign of your organization utilizing matrix management.Sponsor
(Executive Sponsor and Project Sponsor). This is the person who has ultimate Power and authority over the project. He (the executive sponsor)provides project funding, takes careof issues and scope changes, approves major deliverables and provides high-level direction. They also champion the project within their organization. Depending on the project, and the organizational level of the Executive Sponsor,tactical management can be delagate to a Project Sponsor. In that case, the Project Sponsor represents the Executive Sponsor on a day-to-day basis, and makes most of the decisions requiring sponsor approval. In the case that the decision is important enough, the Project Sponsor will then refer to the Executive Sponsor for resolution purpose.Stakeholder.
Stakeholders consist of specific people or groups who detain a stake , or an interest, in the outcome of the project. Generally these people are from within the company, and could include internal clients, management, employees, administrators, etc.It's also possible to find external stakeholders in a project , including suppliers, investors, community groups and government organization.Steering Committee.
It's is a group of high-level stakeholders who have the responsibility of providing guidance on overall strategic direction. The steering committee does not play the role of a Sponsor, however it help spreading the strategic input and buy-in to a larger portion of the organization. The Steering Committee is usually made up of organizational peers, and is a combination of direct clients and indirect stakeholders. The members on the Steering Committee may also sit on the Change Control Board, although in many cases the Change Board is made up of representatives of the Steering Committee.Suppliers / Vendors.
Despite the fact that some companies may have internal suppliers, in the LifecycleStep Process, these terms will always be used to talk about a third party companies, or specific people that work for third parties. They may be subcontractors who are working under your direction, or they may be supplying material, equipment, hardware, software or supplies to your project. Depending on their role, they may need to be identified on your organization chart. For instance, if you are partnering with a supplier to develop your requirements, you probably want them on your organization chart. On the other hand, if they are a vendor supplying a common piece of hardware, you probably would not consider them a part of the team.Users.
Users are the people who will use the deliverables of the project. These people are also heaveily involved in the project especially for activities such as defining business requirements. In other cases, they may not get involved until the testing process. Sometimes you want to specifically identify the user organization or the specific users of the solution and assign a formal set of responsibilities to them, like developing use cases or user scenarios based on the needs of the business requirements.Responsibility Matrix
In a large project context, there are generally many people who play some role in the creation and approval of project deliverables. Sometimes this is pretty straightforward, such as one person writing a document and one person approving it. In other cases, it's possible to find many people who have a hand in the creation, and others that need to have varying levels of approval. The Responsibility Matrix is a technique used to define the general responsibilities for each role on a project. The matrix can then be used to communicate the roles to the appropriate people associated with the team. This helps set expectations, and ensures people know what is expected from them.On the matrix, the different people, or roles, appear as columns, with the specific deliverables in question listed as rows. Then, use the intersecting points to describe each person's responsibility for each deliverable. A simple example matrix follows:
- A - Approves the deliverable
- R - Reviews the deliverable (and provides feedback).
- C - Creates the deliverable (could be C (1) for primary, C (2) for backup). Usually there is only one person who is responsible for creating a deliverable, although many people may provide input.
- I - Provides input
- N – Is notified when a deliverable is complete
- M - Manages the deliverables (such as a librarian, or person responsible for the document repository)
According to the table above, the project manager is responsible of creating the Requirements Management Plan ,which is approved by the sponsor and client managers, and reviewed by the project team and analysts.The main purpose of the matrix is to ,clairly establish who is responsible of what,the colums can be define with as much detail as makes sense. For instance, if we take a look of the above example, the 'Project Team' could have been broken into specific people or the person responsible for creating the Data Model could have been broken out into a separate column. After the matrix is completed, it should be circulated for approval. If it is done in the Project Charter process, it can be an addendum to the Project Charter. If it is created as a part of the initial Analysis Phase, it should be circulated as a separate document.
Examples of responsibility codes are as follows. Your project may define different codes, as long as you explain what they mean so that people know what the expectations are for them.
REFERENCES:
www.cit.cornell.edu/computer/robohelp/cpmm/Project_Roles_and_ Responsibilities.htm - 13k
www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/InfoKits/infokit-related-files/roles-and-responsibilities- template -